Recipes For Effective Leadership

Along the way through life, each one of us we may have come across an individual that embodied great leadership skills. These skills are difficult to sum up in words, but when embodied in its totality, it is truly magnetic. Such leaders are difficult to find, but they exist if we look hard enough. An effective leader draws from their values, to guide their decision, conduct, and dealing with others. They are a person of passion that struggles toward a cause that is bigger than themselves. They have dreams of bettering society and strive towards improving their character. Such leaders possesses great attributes that takes years to forge. As well as providing great leadership, they provide inspiration, direction, commitment to excellence and most importantly, they lead by example.Effectives leaders have clear convictions about what is right and what is wrong.

An effective leader has self-knowledge. They have learned throughout their life experience, both the good and the bad. They have made mistakes. Great leaders learn from mistakes. They grow and develop their skills based on past occurrences. When they make a blunder, they take a mental note and try not to repeat the same mistake twice. They also realize that people who don’t make mistakes, are reluctant to try different perspectives. According to Shirley Hufstedler, a lawyer, former judge, and former U.S. secretary of education, “If you haven’t failed, you haven’t tried very hard.” Even through such mistakes, they remain firm in their ethics as they establish boundaries of what not to cross. They demonstrate integrity and remain consistent in their behavior.

A great leader is not born, they are made. It is through an inventory of life experiences that great leaders are molded to lead their particular circumstance. “The techniques of leadership,” wrote Frederick and John Dyer, “are admittedly the most mysterious and the most difficult to teach. Yet, in the long run, the very fact that the (person) is trying to be a good leader shows through. People become what they seek to be. While everyone can become a great leader, not everyone has the inertia, the discipline, and patience to lead successfully. Such people lack the will-power to be patient during setbacks and they may not always have the vision to develop their true potential. Becoming an effective leader is the ultimate act of spirit, mind, and body. If anyone has the will-power and if they want it badly enough, they can become a great leader.

One recipe of an effective leader is to direct the dream. Managing or directing the dream is first done by sharing the vision with all employees. The vision must also give purpose for the employees and staff to act and carry out the dream. It also has to be strategical. Everyone in business knows that people perform different functions. Therefore, it is important to give all employees in different departments an overarching purpose of the companies mission statement so everyone can rally towards the same goal. This involves creating a blueprint of how to reach the end goal. Once the goal has been set, the leader must begin to hire meticulously. Every great leader knows that great results are the result of great teams. The challenge occurs when trying to make the team become a cohesive unit that clicks. It’s a measured process that takes time for everyone to acknowledge each other’s skills. An effective leader must create a wow team. Successful hiring requires the leader to know the particular skills and behaviors to make the team flourish.

The first step to creating a wow team is to create positive energy. The leader should create a culture where no individual feels left out. Everyone on the team should be motivated and encouraged to work together. A culture where great ideas are admired for their effort rather than punished. A culture where people are rewarded for their performance. A culture where people don’t have to jump through hoops to get work done. The leader should enable a culture that uses trust and truth as a mechanism to unlock peoples potential. When an employee begins to degrade the work environment and removes the wow factor, the employee should be reminded and called out for their lackluster performance. While on the other hand, when an employee adds to the fun and excitement of the work environment, the leader should celebrate just as loudly. It is important to maintain a culture where enthusiasm remains high. Effective leaders use a checklist when trying to hire great employees. The checklist should incorporate traits such as self-awareness, regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. By looking for these traits in candidates, it creates alignment with the companies vision. It is important not to bypass any one of the traits. If there are ten pivotal checklists that aligns with the companies mission, it’s important that the employee has all of those qualities. One such important characteristic that should be sought after in employees is emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a great characteristic for not just employees but also great leaders. Emotional intelligence allows the leader to develop and articulate character building, self-awareness, intuition, and the ability to extend these emotions as a vesicle to create a dynamic working human experience. It is not enough to just have a smart intellect; it is also vital to nourish the intellect with emotional intelligence. Separating emotional intelligence from the intellect can create friction not only amongst the individual but also in the work place and society at large. Emotions serve as an authentic source of human energy, a guiding principle and a light. The feedback from the innermost core and not the head is what facilitates human creativity, kindness, and shapes trusting relationships.

For generations, leaders have allowed IQ to dictate their decision-making process. Yale Psychologist, Robert Sternberg said it best when he said, “If IQ rules it is only because we have let it. And when we let it rule, we choose a bad master. Leaders can pay a difficult price if they only rule by IQ. This can cause problems not only in their personal lives but also in the life of organizations. When leaders disconnect emotions from the intellect, this can have long term repercussions. Great leaders should not rely on solely technical rationality to decipher and analyze the complex world around them – if they do, then they we will begin to treat humans, markets, organizations, concepts, as numerical objects, bereft of change. Emotional intelligence gives meaning to the vibrant world around us; EQ manifests itself in the human heart that growth, synergy, cooperation, and transformation is possible.

The purpose and reason for a successful leader to have emotional intelligence is that it creates an awareness in one’s self to perceive, measure and manage the emotions of one’s self and others. Emotional intelligence requires a consistent evaluation so that it is neither extremely happy which lead to a false sense of celebration or praise or becoming too sad which can lead to self-inflicted pain to oneself or to others. Handling emotions so that they are balanced and appropriate helps builds self-awareness. People that solely rely on their IQ and fail to use their emotional intelligence can have a more difficult time bouncing back from life when they experience setbacks or failures. Therefore, emotional intelligence, once harnessed properly can elevate not just the leader but an entire organization.

Effective leaders reflect on lessons learned from the past. They take lessons from both their failures and success. Past experiences allows leaders to resolve future guesswork. It helps broaden the horizon and provide a more clearer vision. It allows the leader to get to the heart of the matter. It enables the leader to codify their vision and remain firm in their determination. Ernest Hemingway said that the world breaks all of us, and we grow stronger in the broken places. This statement holds true for all great leaders. They have the ability to bounce back from hardship and achieve even greater heights. Great leaders operate in environments where change is constantly occurring. The environment can become chaotic and unpredictable. Therefore, they must take lesson from past experiences and apply it to present circumstances. They must be willing to constantly evolve and adapt and adjust to external changes. True leaders are forged in an environment where change is a constant.

True leaders expect and accept adversity. Their high profiles makes them a perfect target for adversity both inside and outside the company. Throughout their careers, top leaders encounter fear, trauma, re-organizations, obstacles, and take overs. Despite all of the setback, true leaders remain consistent. They remain on course and dedicated to the vision. Hardship may hurt in the beginning. It’s only long after the bruises are healed, that true leaders reflect back and say, “You know, facing adversity hurt, but it actually taught me something very important. It won’t happen again”. Poor leadership is where they don’t learn from their setbacks and continue making the same mistakes again and again. The reason why leaders get wacked is because something bad happened. This is usually the case with young and up-coming leaders. Since they have yet to experience the up and downs of life, they will experience their share of failures and setbacks.

Effective leaders have six recovery methods in their arsenal. Their first remedy is to confront and own their short-comings. Great leaders don’t blame others for their setbacks. Comments like, “HR should have warned us about this mess”, “John from Marketing should have seen this coming”. Great leaders don’t blame others, they push back with determination and re-ignite the organization spirit. Most times, when a company gets in trouble, a poor leaders first reaction is to begin firing people. They choose a specific number, let’s say 10%, and fire 10% of the workforce. Furthermore, in order to make the firing process more smoothly, they offer buyout packages to any employee that wants to leave. Of course, the brightest employees will gladly take the buy-out package and leave. Effective leaders hold on to their brightest and most talented employees during times of great difficulty. They remain firm and keep the brightest and most talented employees filled with enthusiasm. They begin to use real data to carve out a growth plan. They hold meetings to re-strategize and re-group.

After carefully carving out a growth plan using real data, effective leaders go back to the strategy board. They create a plan that shows the company’s current weakness and strengths. They look at their current competitors. They outline the competitors’ products and compare prices. Then they take an assessment of the company’s recent landscape. They evaluate the underlying technology of their competitor and compare it with their own technology. Effective leader then anticipate what’s around the corner and plans accordingly. They work on the ‘wow product’ or next great idea to help capture market share. Great leaders make effective strategies pertaining to the future. They plan for today, tomorrow, and the future, they do not dwell on the past. Therefore, an effective leader has to have some ideas about change, about how the future could be different.

Charisma is an important leadership quality. Effective leaders work to improve this skill. While, many leaders lack this trait, they still manage to inspire trust and confidence. Lucky Stores’ Don Ritchey observes, “A real essential for effective leadership is that you can’t force people to do very much. They have to want to, and most times I think they want to if they respect the individual who is out in front, and if they have confidence that the person has some sort of vision for the company. Employees look up to great leaders for inspiration. They want a mentor. By setting a great example, employees will be motivated to get the job done. Great leaders earn the trust of those beneath them by leading by example. They demonstrate constancy, reliability and integrity. Therefore it is important for great leaders to show commitment to excellence and to work on creating a charismatic personality.

Genuine leaders know themselves. They recognize their strength and work to improve their weaknesses. They have the scars to prove it. Newspaper editor Gloria Anderson said, “It’s vital for people to develop their own sense of themselves and their role in the world, and it’s equally vital for them to try new things, to test themselves and their beliefs and principles. I think we long for people who will stand up for what they believe, even if we don’t agree with them, because we have confidence in such people”. When a leader leads with purpose, others listen. Conviction is incredibly important. This also creates alignment in the workplace. As a result, when an effective leader leads with purpose, direction and stands for what they believe, others will listen and follow.

Another recipe for an effective leader is that they don’t have a finish line. They are always looking for ways to better themselves and the company. They embrace growth initiatives and make it part of the cultures DNA. There are many reasons why growth is important. The main reason is that everyone loves growth. It is the elixir of life for any organization. When a new product or service is offered, the end goal is to create growth. This creates excitement throughout the company. Bumping up revenues and profits allows the organization to expand and to research new and emerging products. Growth allows an organization to attract top talent. The fact is, growth isn’t a mindset. It’s an attitude – an attitude that starts with the leader, and then gets passed through the organization, like one candle lighting the next until the whole room is ablaze. Growth gives employees job security, pays for a child’s college tuition, builds long term careers and buys homes.

There are some effective strategies that aspiring leaders must follow to initiate growth. The first thing they must do is to bring in fresh eyes into their industry. They must be willing to accept change and allocate resources based on different perspectives. An effective leader doesn’t just sprinkle resources, they pour resources to a specific project or service. They put their best people on growth initiatives and then get out of the way, allowing the team to build the product. Effective leaders empower their employees by giving them opportunities early in their careers to take on risks to reach empowerment. These opportunities should include strategic, conceptual, and tactical skills, special projects work, troubleshooting and other responsibilities. While some leaders empower their employees within the confines of their current product offerings, effective leaders put their employees on a mission to purse the next great idea. Very few leaders tap into their employee power. They focus primarily on the bottom line without giving consideration or thought to nurturing their current employees. In Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters says that organizations that succeed over time will have the following characteristics in common:● A flatter, less hierarchical structure

● More autonomous units

● An orientation toward high-value-added products and services

● Quality controls

● Service controls

● Responsiveness

● Innovative speed

● Flexibility

● Highly trained and skilled workers who use their minds as well as their hands

● Leaders, rather than managers, at all levels

Effective leaders try to maintain a work environment where there is less of a hierarchical structure. They try to maintain small teams. It’s highly trained small teams that are a force to be reckoned with. Take for example, the highly small team such as SEALs or Delta Force. There’s nothing like the agility, focus, inventiveness, and spirit of an effective small team of committed and talented individuals, willing to put the team’s success ahead of everything else to deliver the seemingly impossible. Once a trained of highly effective team is in place. They allow the team to work autonomous units within the organization. Another recipe of an effective leaders is that they strive towards high value-added products and services. They strive towards making products that have high impact and high retention. They strive for product excellence. Such leaders create an environment where quality and service controls are in place to allow for innovation. They allow the highly trained teams to take on risk. They create an atmosphere that encourages its people to take risks. Then assures them with words and actions that the only mistake is to do nothing.

Great leaders learn as much as they can and they are never happy with how much they already know. They are willing to take risks and to innovate during the process. They learn from every misstep and grow from each adversity. In 2007 when Jeff Bezos launched Amazon’s grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh. He didn’t choose a successful executive or delivery company to assist his new venture. He decided to hire the people that failed. He chose the people that launched Webvan. They were one of the first online grocery delivery service companies back in the nineties. It was backed by millions of dollars. Two years later after filing its IPO, Webvan failed. The team that started Webvan had a bold idea but its timing may have been too early. Jeff Bezos admired their bold vision. Successful leaders advocate towards hiring people that fail at bold initiatives because they eventually succeed at doing something pronounced. Effective leaders create a culture where failure is embraced. It is viewed as an opportunity to grow rather than feeling defeated when it fails. This creates a culture within the company that flawless execution is not expected from anyone. It allows the leader to value the efforts of those beneath them, creating a mirror effect and in time, earning their respect.

The path to becoming a great leader is a lifelong pursuit. To master such a skill, you must endure many hardships and be committed to lifelong learning. You must master the context of the leadership environment, learn and employ the basic ingredients of leadership, become intimate with your true self, reflect on and resolve significant life experiences, and chart the boundaries of the world in which you live. Great leaders are forged through a wide array of events. It requires determination, patience and the ability to know one self through character building. Great leaders set out to exceed expectations. They are hard on themselves and easy on others. In conclusion, an effective leader has to have a sense of purpose that is much larger than themselves. They have to have a balanced personality skillset which includes commitment, passion, empathy, honesty and integrity. They must also have to have emotional intelligence, creative thinking, as well as a futuristic vision. When embodied as a whole, such leaders radiate confidence by creating a work environment where everyone looks forward to giving their best.

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Coming Up with a Great Name for a Company or Product

Coming up with a great name for a company or product is something that all entrepreneurs struggle towards. A product or company name should be unique that allows the company to attract the greatest number of customers. Coming up with a good name is often difficult as it is difficult to forecast the future. I too have struggled with a good name for an application or product and sometimes wish I could go back in time and chosen a different name. One good example of a company that I believe that chose a bad name was CarFax. When the company came out in the early 90’s, they probably didn’t predict that Fax Machines would one day become almost obsolete. Now, that they have achieved brand awareness, it is extremely difficult for them to change their business name. CarFax now uses a Fox in their commercials that wears a shirt that says “Car Fox”. Their marketing department is trying hard to have the customer associate a Fox with Fax. This can get be confusing to customers. This is similar with the marketing tactics of Geico trying to have consumers associate a Gecko with Geico. The Government Employee Insurance Company (Geico) probably never anticipated that non-government workers would also buy insurance from them.

A more recent case of a company that I believe could have chosen a better name is Volterman. They make wallets that notifies users when they have lost their wallet. I stumbled upon this wallet on the internet on a website called Indiegogo.com. I had just recently lost my wallet and wanted peace of mind that if I ever lost my wallet again, I would be able to easily find it. Indiegogo is a crowdfunding website that entrepreneurs can use to raise funds for a service or a product. It also helps entrepreneurs to evaluate demand for their goods. The Volterman wallet that was being offered on Indiegogo contains GPS along with other sophisticated technology that lets the user know how to carefully retrieve their lost wallet. The wallet also contains a camera which can take a picture of anyone that attempts to steal the wallet. There are many things that I like about the marketing of this product. It was cleverly shown with a with a video persuading customers that owning the Volterman wallet can turn the user into a super hero. The wallet also offers additional sophisticated features such as the ability to charge one’s phone and the ability to use the wallet as a hotspot.

This campaign covers all of the 4 P’s in marketing. It offers a product that consumers want. It has a price that customers are willing to pay. It has promoted the wallet on Indiegogo which has resulted in a huge demand for the product. It offers a place such as the internet for customers to purchase. The Volterman wallet has proven to be a successful product as it has been the most funded wallet campaign in the history of crowdfunding.
Despite the successful demand of the Volterman wallet, there are a few things that the company could have done to increase market share. I believe if the company had used a different name that wasn’t gender specific it would have been able to attract additional customers. Their entire campaign is directed towards men, leaving a huge market opportunity open for competitors. This would have been similar if Apple had called their Apple watches as Apple-WatchMan. Such a name would alienate a huge segment of the market, women. If the company had used a name such as Volterwallet or Volter rather than Volterman, it would have been able to better position itself in the future for female customers.
In conclusion, coming up with a great name for your company or a product requires foresight and due diligence. The Volterman wallet is just a recent example of a company that makes a great product, but due to poor choice in naming the product. The company is missing a great opportunity to go after the female consumer. They marketed the product brilliantly on Indiegogo towards men but completely alienated women. The company achieved 2267% of their initial funding goal which indicates that they have a great product and a great opportunity for future growth. However, since the product name is Volterman, they will have a hard time attracting female customers unless they make another product and call it Volterwoman. It would have been better if they called their product and company Volterwallet.

Why Online Order

Why Your Business Needs Online Ordering

Online Ordering hаѕ rеvоlutіоnіzеd both the restaurant and retail industry. Increasingly, more and more people wаnt to оrdеr from the comforts of their home or work. They want their online orders either delivered to thеm or picked up at their time of convenience.

Thrоugh these mоrе еxtеnѕіvе distribution networks, you can effectively develop уоur сuѕtоmеr bаѕе bеуоnd those that walk into your business. However, partnering with such companies causes many unеxресtеd surprises, such as hіgh рrе-оrdеr fees, ѕhrіnkіng рrоfіt margins, shifting сuѕtоmеr allegiances, inadequate сuѕtоmеr data and most importantly the inability to have the orders print to the Clover POS.

We at Smart Online Order charge a low flat monthly fee of $30.00 for unlimited Online Ordering. Another great benefit of using our online ordering service is that the Online Orders print to your Clover POS and the money gets deposited to your Clover Merchant account without delay.

Full Cоntrоl

As thе оwnеr оf your business, уоu wаnt and deserve to hаvе total соntrоl over еvеrу aspect оf уоur buѕіnеѕѕ including the ability to have Online Orders print to your Clover device. Most othеr Online order ѕеrvісеѕ such аѕ GrubHub, Sеаmlеѕѕ, and Eat24 will lease you a tablet and have Online Orders show up on their device. This can be confusing, causing unexpected delays and use up extra counter space. They may also have соntrоl оvеr уоur mеnu and thе сuѕtоmеr lіѕt. With Smart Online Order, you own your customer’s list and have absolute control over your menu. Customer’s data are automatically added to your customer database, directly to your Clover, allowing for you to market to them efficiently.

FEATURES

With Smart Online Order, you are in charge because you already own a Clover Device. You can make any сhаngеѕ аnd сuѕtоmіzе the ѕуѕtеm tо suit уоur buѕіnеѕѕ needs. Yоu саn uрdаtе уоur menu, print reports, view statistics, and choose which menu items show up on your Clover Device.

Whеn a сuѕtоmеr сlісkѕ on thе lіnk tо рlасе аn оrdеr, with a bеlіеvе thаt thеу аrе dоіng ѕо dіrесtlу with the restaurant, they are not. The orders are being placed through a third party website. Thеrеfоrе, they are іndіrесtlу mаrkеtіng аnd gеnеrаtіng traffic tо their wеbѕіtе, nоt уоurѕ.

Smart Online Order makes your business “ѕраrklіng vіѕіblе” because customers order directly from your website, they interact with your brand, and the orders print to your Clover Device.

Smart Online Order соmеs with a flat fixed rate of $30 a month. It allows you to showcase your Clover Menu on your website and receive unlimited Online Orders without any hidden charges.

Don’t have a website? No problem! We help business owners build user-friendly websites and include Online Ordering for a flat fee of $60 a month. All expense covers, hosting, website maintenance, SSL, and a one time setup fee of just $200. Everything will be seamlessly іntеgrаtеd іntо уоur COVER POS ѕуѕtеm.

Remember, If you already have a website, then you can skip the website creation process and add the Online Ordering. We have simplified the installation process for the Online Orders.

It is easy and will take just about 10 minutes and we can do it for you at no extra cost

Please e-mail or call now and mention "Free Demo." We will help set you up for free for 30 days so you can get access to all the features.You can start accepting Online Orders as early as today.Don't want to call or e-mail?You can also send a text message.925-234-5554support@zaytechapps.com

I purchased a display pole for my Clover Device, but it is not turning on

How do I use coupon codes for Online Ordering

How do I reorder modifiers for online ordering

Please e-mail or call now and mention "Free Demo." We will help set you up for free for 30 days so you can get access to all the features.You can start accepting Online Orders as early as today.Don't want to call or e-mail?You can also send a text message.925-234-5554support@zaytechapps.com

Blockchain Technology and Its Potential Impact on the Business Ecosystems and Customer Experience.

Blockchain, and the myriad of cryptocurrencies it has spawned, is the most significant technological innovation since the dawn of the internet. It has the potential to revolutionize how we organize society, how we are governed and the way we do business. In recent years, blockchain technology has evolved far beyond bitcoin and is now being tested in a broad range of business and financial applications. However, blockchain technology is still emerging and has not yet been proven at enterprise scale, which is a fundamental challenge to blockchain’s transformative potential. This article will examine what blockchain is and what impact will it have on Business Ecosystems and Customer Experience

Challenges and Opportunities

Blockchain was first introduced as the core technology behind Bitcoin, the headline-grabbing decentralized digital currency ecosystem proposed in 2008. The appeal of blockchain technology lies in its use of peer-to-peer network technology combined with cryptography, a digital ledger created to capture transactions conducted among various parties in a network. All participants, individuals or businesses using the shared database are “nodes” connected to the blockchain, each maintaining an identical copy of the ledger. Every entry into a blockchain is a transaction that represents an exchange of value between participants. In practice, many different types of blockchains are being developed and tested. However, most blockchains follow this general framework and approach (Lush, 2017).

When one participant wants to send value to another, all the other nodes in the network communicate with each other using a pre-determined mechanism to check that the new transaction is valid. This mechanism is referred to as a consensus algorithm (Witherspoon, 2018). Once a transaction has been accepted by the network, all copies of the ledger are updated with the new information. Multiple transactions are usually combined into a “block” that is added to the ledger (See Figure 1). Each block contains information that refers back to previous blocks and thus all blocks in the chain link together in the distributed identical copies. Participating nodes can add new, time-stamped transactions, but participants cannot delete or alter the entries once they have been validated and accepted by the network. If a node modified a previous block, it would not sync with the rest of the network and would be excluded from the blockchain. A properly functioning blockchain is thus immutable despite lacking a central administrator (Callahan, 2017).

Figure 1. How Blockchain Works? (Lush, 2017)

This combination enables parties who do not know each other to conduct transactions without requiring a traditional trusted intermediary such as a bank or payment processing network. By eliminating the intermediary and harnessing the power of peer-to-peer networks, blockchain technology may provide new opportunities to reduce transaction costs dramatically and decrease transaction settlement time (Lewrick, 2018). Blockchain has the potential to transform and disrupt a multitude of industries, from financial services to the public sector to healthcare. As a result, a number of venture capital firms and large enterprises are investing in blockchain technology research and trials to re-imagine traditional practices and business models (Jagati, 2018).

A major advantage of blockchain technology is its distributed nature. In today’s capital markets, the transfer of value between two parties generally requires centralized transaction processors such as banks or credit card networks. These processors reduce counterparty risk for each party by serving as an intermediary but centralize credit risks with themselves (D’Aliessi, 2016). Each of these centralized processors maintains its own separate ledger; the transacting parties rely on these processors to execute transactions accurately and securely. For providing this service, the transaction processors receive a fee. In contrast, a blockchain allows parties to transact directly with each other through a single distributed ledger, thus eliminating one of the needs for centralized transaction processors (Agrawal, 2018).

In addition to being efficient, the blockchain has other unique characteristics that make it a breakthrough innovation (See Figure 2). Blockchain is considered reliable because full copies of the blockchain ledger are maintained by all active nodes. Thus, if one node goes offline, the ledger is still readily available to all other participants in the network (Bhatia, 2017). A blockchain lacks a single point of failure. In addition, each block in the chain refers to the previous blocks, which prevents deletion or reversing transactions once they are appended to the blockchain. Nodes on a blockchain network can come and go but the network integrity and reliability will remain intact as long as it is being used. In this way, no single party controls a blockchain and no single party can modify it or turn it off (Chapman, 2018).

Figure 2. Characteristics of Distributed Ledger (Agrawal, 2018)

People should be aware that blockchain technology is a new form of database and each blockchain implementation may have different characteristics that make it unique. While the technology is emerging, there is a risk that a specific blockchain implementation does not live up to the promise of the technology. In the current ecosystem, there are two major classifications of blockchain networks: permissionless and permissioned (De Breuck, 2017). The biggest difference is the determination of which parties are allowed access to the network. A blockchain may be shared publicly with anyone who has access to the Internet; permissionless or public blockchain or shared with only certain participants; permissioned or private blockchain (Kadyala, 2018).

So what is the difference between permissionless and permissioned blockchain? A permissionless blockchain is open to any potential user. For example, the Bitcoin blockchain is a public or permissionless blockchain; anyone can participate as a node in the chain by agreeing to relay and validate transactions on the network thereby offering their computer processor as a node (Kadiyala, 2018).

Joining the blockchain is as simple as downloading the software and bitcoin ledger from the Internet. Because the blockchain maintains a list of every transaction ever performed, it reflects the full transaction history and account balances of all parties (Kadiyala, 2018). Figure 3 is an example of a transfer of bitcoin (BTC) from one individual to another. When one party sends bitcoin to another party, the Bitcoin blockchain is updated by the following process, including a process referred to as “mining”.

While a permissionless blockchain lives up to the potential of the technology by allowing anyone access, it can have limitations that are difficult to remedy. For example, when the blockchain is created, transaction volume or size may be set to the best available technology at the time. As technology advances, initial settings may become limitations that may make the blockchain out of date, potentially slowing transaction speeds (Dreifuerst, 2018). Users of permissionless blockchains should also be aware that their transaction history is exposed to anyone who downloads the database for as long as the database is active. While it may be difficult for an outside party to identify a participant on the blockchain, if a participant is identified, their entire transaction history would be public (Dreifuerst, 2018).

The limitations of permissionless blockchains have led some organizations to explore the use of private or permissioned/consortium blockchains, which restrict participation in the blockchain network to participants who have already been given permission by agreed-upon administrators. These blockchains address some of the drawbacks of public blockchains, but also sacrifice some of the potential benefits (See Figure 4). Permissioned blockchains are likely to be set up by a consortium of parties that can collectively benefit from a shared ledger system (Allaby, 2016). For example, a supply chain network may want to use a blockchain to track the movement of goods.

Figure 4. Permissioned Ledger Access (Allaby, 2016)

Given the widely acknowledged limitations inherent in public blockchains, private or permissioned/consortium blockchains are expected to have a higher adoption rate in the near term, especially in enterprise environments. However, adoption of public blockchains is also expected to increase in the longer term once the key infrastructure and technical challenges of the new technology have been addressed (Kulkarni, 2018). The paradigm shift introduced by blockchain in many ways parallels the development of the Internet in the 1990s. With Internet technology, there was a strong initial emphasis on corporate intranets until a critical mass was reached and the broader public Internet began to offer more benefits to offset the perceived risks of participating in an open network (Jayachandran, 2017).

Another key development in blockchain technology was the introduction of smart contracts. Smart contracts are computer code stored on a blockchain that executes actions under specified circumstances. They enable counterparties to automate tasks usually performed manually through a third-party intermediary. Smart-contract technology can speed up business processes, reduce operational error, and improve cost efficiency (Chatsko, 2018).

For example, two parties could use a smart contract to enter into a common derivative contract to hedge the price of oil at the end of the year. Once the terms of the contract have been agreed to, it is appended to the blockchain and the wagered funds are held in escrow and registered on a blockchain. At year end, the smart contract would read the price of oil by referencing a trusted source defined in the smart contract, calculate the settlement amount, and then transfer funds to the winning party on the blockchain (Chatsko, 2018).

Smart contracts are a method to automate the contracting process and enable monitoring and enforcement of contractual promises with minimal human intervention (See Figure 5). Automation can improve efficiency, reduce settlement times and operational errors. Because using smart contract technology requires the translation of all contractual terms into logic, it may also improve contract compliance by reducing ambiguity in certain situations (Chandrayan 2017).

Figure 5. Smart Contracts (Chandrayan, 2017)

As smart contracts continue to evolve, inherent risks may emerge that need to be mitigated. For example, when setting up a smart contract, the parties may decide not to address every possible outcome, or they may include some level of flexibility so they do not limit themselves. This could lead to smart contracts with vulnerabilities or errors that could lead to unexpected business outcomes. Parties may find it difficult to renegotiate the terms of a deal or modify terms due to an unforeseen error. Also, incomplete or flexible contracts can lead to settlement problems and disputes. Perhaps most importantly, however, at the date of this publication, smart contracts have not been tested thoroughly in the court system. Nevertheless, smart contracts offer a compelling use case for blockchain adoption (Mack, 2018).

Business Solution

So what does Blockchain technology have to do with customer experience? The fundamentals of customer experience are rooted in the trust that a customer places in a brand. Trust that an organization will be true to its word, live up to its brand promises, provide the product or service as specified and not let the customer down.

According to The Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, the top four factors that negatively impact corporate reputation are; lying or misrepresenting facts about a product or service (80% of Americans interviewed), intentional wrongdoing or illegal actions by corporate leaders (again 80% of those surveyed), security or data breaches (74%), and product recalls due to contamination that may cause illness (66%).

Since the fundamental benefits of blockchain’s digital ledger technology are trust and transparency, the technology logically has enormous potential to transform customer experience. Here are four reasons why it is transformative for customer experience; (a) The technology enables peer to peer transactions without the need of a trusted central third party or intermediary, meaning brands can interact directly with customers and have greater level of influence over the customer journey. (b) Cryptography enables increased security and protection of data and identity, meaning customers can own and monetize their own data leading which will lead to a re-imagination of customer loyalty programs. (c) Data is immutable thus reducing fraud, increasing transparency, meaning the provenance of an asset, a claim about a brand, or company performance is indisputable. This could include NPS scores, customer retention rates and product defect rates. (d) Near real-time settlement means friction in a transaction is eliminated and risk reduced. As more customers interact with blockchain applications, the bar of customer expectations for an effortless experience will be raised (Nuttall, 2017).

Companies that adopt this technology will be transparent, not hiding behind obscure contract terms and conditions, and will build trust, for example by overhauling outdated loyalty programs to build unique, traceable customer rewards. Blockchain is therefore a big deal for customer experience professionals enabling organizations to build propositions that create genuine value and long term loyalty for customers (Carrigan, 2018).

Lessons Learned/Business Case

Blockchain changes the information and technology paradigm for processing and has the potential to re-invent the model for managing transaction-processing contracts. This core innovation is one that extends across several industry segments delivering operational value through improved efficiency (See Figure 6). By reordering and automating complex labor-intensive processes, Blockchain can enable organizations to operate faster while at the same time reducing cost and friction (Owyang, 2017).

The value proposition of Blockchain resonates with industries and applications that have key performance drivers related to cost reduction and process efficiencies. These include healthcare and supply chain management. Financial services and industries have evolved into a highly complex but orchestrated marketplace. The advent of Blockchain requires an ecosystem that collaborates across industries, geographies, borders and boundaries (Owyang, 2017).

Figure 6. Blockchain for Every Industry (Owyang, 2017)

While today’s market infrastructure and approach is mostly efficient and stable, we have the opportunity to develop a stronger ecosystem with built in irrefutability and scalability which allows for an industry-led re-architecture of processes and systems. It will take work but the payoff will result in a more efficient business environment with macro-level impacts to economies (Nuttall, 2017).

Blockchain is certainly going to change the way we do things. In the beginning, as was the case with the introduction of the internet in the 90s, change will be slow before it snowballs and completely overshadow everything we know. The same way, blockchain technologies are here to define our future. Today most people who use the internet and the underlying technologies do not understand how it works but use it for everything from shopping to healthcare to daily communication in ways which were not possible before. Blockchain can once again drastically change our society and understanding on how it can affect our lives today, which will help us prepare and benefit from the future changes to come.

Blockchain is the technology of the future. One of the most attractive things about blockchain is its inbuilt security and also the decentralization and disintermediation of systems/information it offers. Blockchain can be applied virtually to any industry when databases of transactions, balances, trades are being kept and maintained. Blockchain will wrest control from institutions and governments and give it to the people directly involved. There will come a time that blockchain will be so intrinsic to the way things are done that it will be taken for granted.

In the next two to five years, we are going to see projects that use the blockchain without even mentioning it because it is going to be used for the infrastructure of these new businesses.

If you are interested in Blockchain technology and would like to invest in Zaytech please e-mail support@zaytechapps.com for more information. We are looking for investors and can share with you our current work.

Integrated Customer Experience

B usinesses big and small need to adopt measures and policies to provide a holistic customer experience. Customer experience is an emotional concept, the result of which manifest themselves in various ways depending on the industry (Ponnam, 2014). Customers now interact with a company through a myriad of different outlets, from social media to mobile devices to a physical store. Companies are now having to scramble to collect data from a wide array of sources. It is important to treat customers in the same manner whether the location is offline or online. Businesses executives need to spend less time thinking about online social interactions and more time thinking how to make online interactions more consistent with real-life interactions. (Rodney Heisterberg, 2014) By leveraging analytics, and a customer journey map, organizations can now offer a unified customer experience.

Figures 1 demonstrates a customer experience Framework

Figure 1. Customer Experience Improvement Framework (Sedley, nd)

Challenges and Opportunities

Customer interaction with a business now involves additional touchpoints. Organizations are lacking to put clear procedures in place to standardize and optimize the customer experience across all touch points by utilizing customer data. Enhancing customer experience should not be a one-time effort, it should remain a continuous journey that adapts and keeps up to date with emerging technology. Furthermore, the traditional business models of marketing towards customers’ has to be changed. Today’s social media can be hard for companies as campaigns are designed to allow the user to participate and engage in the product or service rather than trying to market to the end user. Interactions should be monitored, no matter how small. Data should be collected, not matter how large. All of this should be done to build a consistent customer profiles so the customer is given a wholistic experience.

A consistent and relevant customer experience directly links to conversion. When a customer engages with an organization at all touchpoints and experiences a fluid service, he or she is more likely to purchase the product or service. Conversions happen when the business meets or exceeds the customer’s expectations. It is important to serve both the online and offline customer with the same effort. Serving one group of customers and excluding others, for instance, places a real or imagined limit on revenue growth (Porter, 1996) Often times organizations are reluctant to offer a consistent customer experience because they bypass the customer journey map resulting in a fragmented experience. The customer journey map starts with the product or brand. A customer journey map is a graphic or narrative representation of the customer’s relationship with a company, product or service. It shows the customer’s interactions with the business over time and across service channels.

Business Solution

Business have two wear two hats when they are implementing a service or selling a product. One hat as the designer who understands the workings of the product inside out and one hat as customer who is reviewing the product for the first time and checking to see if it fits their organization’s needs. This type of preparation and planning will allow business executives to understand the product or service from a customer’s point of view.

The customer journey map can uncover problems, show gaps in service, and help align members of the company to company goals. (Rawson, nd)

Customer Journey mapping is gaining prominence as firms have to re-evaluate their Business Process Management to ensure that the overall goal is to enhance the customer experience. They have to ask themselves the question,

“Who do we work for today?”

Simplifying operations, lowering costs should not be at the detriment of the customer experience. Disruptive business models focus on creating, refining, re-engineering, or optimizing a product, service, sector or an entire industry (Rodney Heisterberg, 2014) Such disruptive thinking can utilize collaborative tools to gain a competitive advantage. While on the surface many organizations appear to have the customer experience as part of the business process management, however, only those that implement a customer journey map gain a distinct competitive advantage. An increased visibility of the customer experience is a good sign as it forces organizations to take the outside-in view into account (Misiak, 2018).

Business processes are at the core of what distinguishes a business from the competition. BPM can be defined as a management discipline focused on using business processes as a significant contributor to achieving an organization’s objectives through the improvement, ongoing performance management and governance of essential business processes (CDRU, 2015) Business process management enables different parts of the organization to interact and reach a desired goal. By creating a customer journey, it allows the organization to view how it interacts with the customers rather than just seeing the department or particular observations.

Figure 2 illustrates the different aspects of Business Process Management

Figure 2. Business Process Managment (Tech Robust, 2018)

Customers are the most valuable asset of any business and they are directly responsible for the success of the company (Rodney Heisterberg, 2014). Developing a strategy in a new or existing industry that is undergoing rapid technological changes can create uncertainty about products of services the customer desires. During such a phase, the firm has an opportunity to re-align itself with the customer’s needs. A company can outperform rivals if it can establish that it can preserve. It must deliver greater value to customer or create comparable value at a lower cost. (Porter, 1996) By managing the process with the latest methods of collaboration tools, organization can increase efficiency. Collaboration can bring differentiation from competitors, drive business performance, create a better workplace that is more likely to retain employees, and help design the future of work in an organization, especially as the workforce is the single biggest investment that most companies make (Hinchcliffe, 2014).

Figure 3 demonstrate the changes in Enterprise Collaboration Tools.

Figure 3. Enterprise Collaboration Tools (Hinchcliffe, 2014)

Business process management and Saas gives organizations a competitive advantage as it allows them to improve and highlight inefficiencies across the customer journey. The organizational team can build the framework of a Business Intelligence Competency (ICC) This starts with the promotion of business intelligence protocols that aligns with the organizations overall mission. BICC can be seen as an umbrella that includes all of the applications, infrastructure and tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and optimize decisions and performance (Oliver KOPF, 2017) The overall goal is to improve the customer experience. Customers want experience and it’s not possible to build those experiences without understanding what drives them.

One method of attracting customers to a products or service is marketing. Without an effective marketing plan, a product or service will fail to reach its potential. Take the example of Neutrogena. Neutrogena’s marketing looks more like a drug company than a face wash. Furthermore, it began to sell its products solely at drug stores. Today, Neutrogena is widely distributed across many different markets- from drugstores to supermarkets. It uses social media to create campaigns and target specific audiences. The analytics provided by Facebook and other online platforms allows it to measure the effectiveness of its campaign and to fine tune as needed. Figure 5.1 shows illustrates a marketing framework.

Figure 5.1 Go to Market Framework (Officer, 2011)

Business process management is focused on supporting the modeling and automation of business process. When Business Intelligence is added, it allows for the process of fast and cost-effective process solution. As technology has advanced and the advent of social media and advanced collaboration tools have become prominent. Businesses need to align customer journey’s and business process management in a more meaningful and sustainable way. When customer journeys are blended with business process management this will lead to increase in customer experience.

Why you should care

The advent of social media has changed how businesses market their customers. Customers can now vent their frustrations both offline and online. The traditional business model of marketing customers has changed to one where the customer engages in a product or service. As a business owner, it is important to be prepared and learn how to use data and touch points to create a customer journey map that enhances the customer experience. Customers are interacting with businesses from various touch points and it is important to unify the customer experience.

Works Cited

Boreham, R. (2014, August 26). Business Process is dead: Long Live customer Journeys. Retrieved from bpmleader.com: http://www.bpmleader.com/2014/09/26/business-process-is-dead-long-live-customer-journeys/

Misiak, Z. (2018, February 18). How Can BPM and Customer Journey Mapping be Used Together? Retrieved from www.bptrends.com: https://www.bptrends.com/how-can-bpm-and-customer-journey-mapping-be-used-together/

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Tesla and Chobani

There are many industries seeking to gain a competitive edge in the ever-increasing global marketplace. Industries need more than just great leadership, they need valuable insights, a great mission statement, and most importantly a bold strategy. With the advent of social media and modern technology, firms are finding it more challenging while others are able to compete effectively. Small businesses now have greater leverage than ever before and are more likely to make an impact on existing industries. Commonly, threats to strategy are seen to come from outside forces, however, most industries fail to evaluate the signs for stagnation are from within. (Porter, 1996) With the right mixture of great marketing, good product, fair price, and a great strategy, firms can propel their industry forward. We will apply Porters Five Forces of Competitive model to two completely different industries and determine which industry has a higher probability to disrupt an existing industry and reap the greatest profit.

Chobani is an American owned yogurt company found by an immigrant from Turkey. He opened a plant in the United States in 2005 by means of and SBA loan. The factory was formerly owned by Kraft Food. He set out to make Greek Yogurt that was a staple of his diet in Turkey. For two years, Hamdi Ulukaya experimented with different blends to bring Greek yogurt to American households. Chobani faced many obstacles as he tried to differentiate itself from the competition. Chobani wanted to make Yogurt free from preservatives that it felt was missing from competing industries. The threat of Chobani entering an existing market was already dominated by multi-national cooperation’s. This was evident by the strong hold Yoplait and Dannon held. The differentiating factor between Chobani’s Yogurt and competing Yogurt manufacturers was the taste and preservatives. As Chobain’s Yogurt became highly successful, it became more difficult for new entrants to compete against Chobani due to costs of opening a factory. High barrier to entry also makes exiting more difficult (Porter, 1996). The threat of substitutes for Chobani is also great as current Yogurt producers can mimic or replicate the Greek flavor by simply altering the ingredients. This can make the buyer susceptible to substitution.

The supply power of Chobani’s suppliers has minimal effects on Chobani as ingredients can be bargained from various providers. Due to its massive buying power, Chobani has more firm control over its supplier than the supplier has over Chobani. The greatest weakness Chobani faces is the buying power of its customers. They can dictate lower prices, change to a competing brand or lose interest if tastes evolve and if Chobani fails to meet and understand these emerging trends.

Tesla was found by Elon Musk in early 2000. Morgan Stanley calls Tesla, the world’s most important car company. The last successful American car startup was Ford Motors – over a hundred years ago. Tesla shouldn’t even exist, but it does. Let’s use Porter’s Five Forces of Competitive Model to understand how Tesla became one of the worlds most adored car companies. Tesla is a rare anomaly of a successful car company. There was intense competition amongst car companies when the vision of Tesla was born. Tesla’s unique roadmap of building an all-electric is what set it apart from the rest of the auto makers. Building a car, whether electric or gas, requires exponential capital. Tesla was unique in its efforts as it had both timing (battery technology had improved significantly), and access to immense capital. Also, a brilliant founder with a great vision. Its strategy of thwarting off new entrants into the market gives it a significant advantage as it has excelled in making long range batteries that is considerably better than any of its competitors. It has many patents on its battery technology and great economies of scale. Furthermore, it has already established a strong foothold by installing thousands of charging stations. Due to its great buying power, it can bargain the costs of supplies needed to make its all electric cars. It also owns its own battery manufacturing facility known as the Gigafactory. Ultimately, supplying itself with its own batteries. Suppliers have very little effect on Tesla as it can quickly switch suppliers due it economies of scale and needs. The buying power of Tesla’s customers to demand lower prices is very negligible as Tesla offers both a luxury brand and a more budget friendly model. Currently, there is more demand for Tesla cars than the company can produce.

Chobani and Tesla are two great companies that disrupted giant industries that had already established great economies of scale. The industries it disrupted failed to strategize and understand emerging consumer tastes and behaviors. Positioning is not just about carving a niche (Porter, 1996). A position emerges when a firm is both reactive and pro-active. When an industry fails to become pro-active, competing industries such as Chobani and Tesla can begin to capture existing and new market shares. Using Michael Porters Five Forces of Competitive model, both Tesla and Chobani will continue to remain dominant in their markets for years to come. However, when applying Michael Porters Competitive Model to both Chobani and Tesla using their own industries, it can be said with a great sense of probability that Tesla is much better positioned to dominate and gain more profit in the auto industry when compared with Chobani as it competes in its own industry.

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Building a Great Team for App Development

Mobile app development began with the first mobile device as it required software to send and receive phone calls (Dunleavy 2010). The beginning of the new millennium saw a rapid evolution of mobile devices and applications. As both mobile phones and mobile operating systems got more advanced, customers demanded more features. Users began asking for more choices and functionality to customize their mobile devices. As the demand for mobile apps increased, the nature of building apps also changed. It became more challenging for an individual working from home to build an app without a team. Pressured with such dilemma, entrepreneurs ventured into the business of developing a team to build great apps. Such endeavor is no easy task. Making apps requires a team of developers with unique skills. Skills that is not just in app building but also the ability for a team to come together with the goal of meeting the mission statement. This article will explore the trend of app development and how it can influence a career path towards developing apps and building a great team.

The tremendous growth of mobile app development is changing the way people communicate, socialize, and do business. Mobile apps are used in a wide variety of products from smart phones, tablets, computers to a wide array of wearables. They perform a variety of tasks – checking the email, reading books, playing games, connecting with friends, and listening to music. All of this was made possible by the development of mobile applications. Mobile Application development requires a team to work together, that understands each other’s creativity to troubleshoot, make improvements and build a world class application. Building a great team is the foundations for making a company succeed. A successful team needs to be able to work together during times of both difficulty and ease. A team is a group of highly communicative people with various diverse backgrounds who all share a clearly defined goal (Welch 2015). This article will attempt to provide the ingredients for a highly effective team in today’s global marketplace.

Synergy is an important ingredient because it makes the entire group as a single moving unit with various parts. All of the parts rely on each other to meet the end goal. To have synergy, everyone needs to commit to the overall goal. Just like a book contains many chapters, the overall book brings those chapters together to convey the overall mission. Employees are similar to a book, because a book may contain a few chapters that are more interesting than others, just like a few employees may outperform other employees; however the overall purpose of the team is lead to the final chapter; the end product; the conclusion. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. To have true synergy, everyone needs to be on the same page.

Another ingredient for a highly effective team is communication. A lot of issues arise in the workplace due to a lack of communication. It is important to effectively communicate the roles of each employee so they don’t over step their boundaries. In app development, communicating the roles within the company is important so that employees can be praised when they are doing a good job. It is never a good idea to leave an employee blind sighted who quits unexpectedly. They may quit because the management didn’t take the time to praise them when they did performed well. Silence can lead to an employee feeling unappreciated. Communication is a sign of a vibrant company that cares for their employees and understands their concerns.

In order for any team to be successful, the team needs to establish a certain level of trust. They need to be able to trust each other even if they feel the other team member is not delivering a quality product. They need to trust that each team member is performing their task to the best of their abilities. There are times when a team member may lose patience with another team member. It would be better to have a good opinion of the employee and offer additional time to finish a task rather than lose patience. By showing trust in an employee, the employee can begin to feel appreciated; and may work even harder and eventually exceeded the task. A team doesn’t show trust in each other, can face apprehension and doubt can be created amongst the different employees which can cause them to work out of desperation rather than optimism.

Accountability is one of the cornerstones of a highly effective team. Each team member needs to recognize that they are held accountable for their actions. Highly effective teams should realize that each member’s tasks and duties have an effect on the team as a whole. Making great apps or software requires that each person perform a specific task. For example, when making an app that prints coupons through the use of the printer requires the commitment of each team member to ensure they fulfill their individual responsibility.

One team member can be assigned with designing the look of the coupon; another team member can be assigned with the coding required to make the coupon print and another team member can be assigned with the responsibility of making sure the coupon works when redeemed. If a team member remains complacent and doesn’t hold themselves accountable with fulfilling their assigned task then the rest of the team will not be able to meet overall completion of the app. In such scenarios, unproductive team members, force productive team members to fall behind which lead to the entire team falling behind (Welch 2016). Each team member needs to be accountable by completing their assigned tasks and completing it with the best of their abilities. Teams need milestones and goals. Team members need an overall purpose and goal to remind them of the long term vision. With no goals, everyone can go in different directions. In order for a team to be highly effective, they need to share a common goal. A common goal can be as simple as a company’s mission statement to something more complex as a company’s vision to purchase competing industries and run them separately. Everyone on the team must become aware of the company’s goals and be reminded on a consistent basis. When a company’s goals are clearly defined, each member of the team will monitor and identify whether the work they are performing meets the companies mission statement. One such example of a mission statement would be the following: Making the life of business owners easier, by building amazing applications”

Another ingredient of a highly effective team is commitment. Many times, teams do not commit to their stated goals. For whatever reason, they procrastinate and don’t meet the required goals. A good definition of commitment is the act of agreeing or promising to complete something in the future. This means that each team member has an obligation to meet the future commitment. When a team member becomes lax in meeting a future a commitment, the rest of the team suffers. It is important to remind each team member to fulfill their future commitments. A case scenario would be building a Loyalty Applicaiton. One team member can be committed to the task of building a database that would record the points of customers as they spent money. Another team member can be committed to designing the layout of the app and program the app to convert points towards a discount. It is important for each remember to commit to their intended task. If one fails in their commitment, the final product will not come to fruition. The importance of commitment is important so that each individual commits 100% to ensure that they will fulfill their future obligations and commitments.

Another great attribute for building a highly effective team is respect. Respect is a major key for the success of any company. Each team member needs to respect the person for who they are and what they do. When a team member fails to respect another team member this can cause friction within the company. Respect is earned by performing the assigned tasks and meeting deadlines. An employee that has been at a company for several years deserves more respect than an employee that recently started working with the company. There should be a hierarchy in place where everyone works as a team but those that have greater work experience and been longer with the company should be given more respect by the new employees. This allows for other team members to have an understanding that if they have any differences among themselves that they should resolve it by first reaching out to the project manager or those with more experience. While It is important to have a hierarchy within the company, it is also equally important that everyone is respected and works as a team.

Building a great team requires another great skill which can be called open-mindedness. Open mindedness or flexibility requires each team member to listen to others ideas and respect those opinions. They may not have to agree with each other’s opinions or ideas but it is important to listen to those ideas and treat them as equally important. This is increasingly most important in the technology sector when such ideas are rapidly changing. Removing barriers creates creativity and allows for individual talents and skills to be applied creatively (Hernbroth 2016).

Interdependence plays a great role in creating an effective team. This translate to the anatomy of the team, you sink or swim. Reminding the team that they are working as one unit; their failure and success ultimately lays in each other will help develop an atmosphere of interdependence. Too many times a team member may slack and or go in a different direction. Establishing an environment in which all team members feel as much responsibility as the management is the benefit of the work unit (Hernbroth 2016). The best employees are those that reach out to other employees that are either slacking off or falling behind and tries to provide some encouragement to help them. They help them catch up and answer their questions because ultimately their interdependence is locked into how they will perform as a team.

There are many conflicts that occur in the workplace. One of the main reasons for conflicts in the workplace is ineffective communication. Communication is important for a dynamic workforce. The team should meet on a weekly basis to discuss the mission statement and what they need to do remain loyal to that goal. A group meeting should start promptly to discourage late attendees from coming late again. This will instill in the team that the company is serious about its weekly meetings and committed to the company’s mission statement. Another cause of conflict that can arise in the workplace is the generation gap. The younger generation may not show respect to the older generation and the older generation may not show respect to the younger generation. The best way to solve this issue is to allow for both generations to work together on a project that they both show passion. It should be noted that while the older generation may feel that their experience is more valued than their younger colleagues, it is important that both views are respected.

Another type of conflict is value conflict. There are many more males in the technology field than women but this doesn’t necessarily mean that men are more superior when developing software. Some may feel that conflicts can arise when a women works in a male dominated work force, but this is not true. Women bring a different level of professionalism to the work force. They have qualities and attributes that are unique and personal which can enable their male counterparts to feed off that energy. One great quality of women is that they are good listeners. When an employee feels that his views are being heard he or she will feel appreciated and work with even more enthusiasim. A good listener can quickly dispel conflicts and make value conflict diminish.

Growth is fundamental to success of the company. Growth provides assurance to all team members that they are part of a company that will provide for them for years to come. A highly effective team needs to assign its best team members to brainstorm ways of attaining growth. Growth involves risk and it can be tough to achieve. Growth is culmination of aligning mission values, embracing leadership that inspires both performance and innovation (Welch 2015). Growth requires taking risk and bringing fresh eyes. For a team to embrace growth they have to be willing to bring a fresh set of eyes and allow for the company to accept change. Effective strategy is not about a bunch of employees in a windowless room talking about work and what happened in the past, effective strategy is about making the future—and the markets and how it is posed to grow (Welch 2016). For a highly effective team to prosper they must be willing to work with new technology and to accept the companies decision to move to a bigger location. If a product or technology isn’t unique, a strong brand can mitigate results and prevent the company from creating a win-win situation (Welch 2016). If needed, they must be willing to make products overseas to cut overhead costs and must be willing to partner with other companies that can offer their services for a reduced cost. To manage global risk is to go overboard with compliance that you have adhered to in your own country (Welch 2016). Just because a factory overseas allows child labor or seven day a week work days does not mean that you change your standards to maximize profit. Growth can involve a lot of sacrifice but keeping the mission statement in mind will allow the company to achieve gains without risking the company to bad public relations and negative media attention. During the growth phase, a manager may have to step down in position and let another manager take charge until a better system is set in place. They must be willing to take risks and spend a lot of resources on an area of the business that will spur growth. Risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard is to risk nothing (Hernbroth 2016). This can be in hiring a new CEO or investing in machinery or software that better manages team progress. Change is crucial to a team when they are struggling to make progress.

The road to building a successful team is not just about hiring smart, bold, creative and ambitious people. It is about making them work together as one unit. By allowing for a work environment that respects the views of other employees while at the same time setting a clear mission goal can help the team remain purpose driven. Building a highly effective team is the foundation to building a great company.

Works Cited

Dunleavy, P. (2010, July 19). The Second Wave of Digital Era Governance. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1643850